The former Dr Feelgood guitarist and frontman, who was diagnosed in 2013 with inoperable pancreatic cancer and told he had just 10 months to live, says he feels better than ever despite an 11-hour a life saving operation that removed his pancreas and spleen.

And he is thrilled to be back in Scotland – more than four decades after first playing the Glasgow Apollo with his legendary group in the mid-1970s.

Continuing to tour after the cancer diagnosis led to the discovery that he had a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour, a more treatable form of the disease.

Wilko, who recently enjoyed a hit album with Roger Daltrey, said: “We played Cornbury festival and I met a photographer there who is also a cancer doctor.

“We’d been talking and at the end of the year he came to my house and said there was something strange going on because if I had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer I should be dead by now or very, very sick.

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This weekend, Wilko is one of dozens of acts and entertainment performing at the picturesque Belladrum Tartan Heart festival in the Highlands.

He joins a bill at the festival, held on the Belladrum estate near Beauly, that included a headline slot on Thursday night by The Darkness as well as a raft of top names into the weekend that includes Madness, C Duncan and Alabama 3 with Two Door Cinema Club and The LaFontaines among last night’s highlights.

“Festivals like Belladrum have a great atmosphere and everyone is there to enjoy the music and the type of music I play is purely entertainment,” Wilko said.

Wilko used to front band Dr Feelgood

“It’s a good feeling and great to be coming back to Scotland.

“In 1974, when Dr Feelgood first started establishing ourselves we did a couple of short forays into Scotland.

“The first gig we had was at the Station Hotel in Ayr and absolutely nobody came.

“We pulled the gear down and decided to drive back to Glasgow where we were staying.

“The rain was coming down like stair rods and then in Glasgow it was snowing so badly the roads were closed.

“We were supposed to go on to Aviemore but there was so much snow there was no skiing.

“Then a couple of years later we got our record deal and played the Glasgow Apollo which is legendary the world over.

“The first time we played there we were supporting Hawkwind before going on to headline.”

Laughing at the amazing cancer reprieve, Wilko said: “I’d got into the idea that I was on my last lap and suddenly I was being told to carry on and get on with it.

“It’s amazing.

“That year I obviously had grim moments but a lot of the time I was on a high. It was like my eyes had been opened.

“It was almost worth it to have that feeling. Almost.

“I should have been in my grave. The chemotherapy would have destroyed my health.

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“Looking back on it now it was like an intense dream. I’m thinking, wow. Did I go through a year like that? I’d wake up in the morning and I’d think. ‘You are dying’. I think how could I have gone through that nightmare?

“I can’t imagine it now.

“Since I recovered from my operation we’re doing more big gigs and as a band it’s going fantastic. It feels so easy playing gigs now. I’m springing about like a kangaroo. Normally, I’d be playing gigs thinking, ‘I wonder what I’ll have for dinner tonight?’

“During that year doing gigs I could go onstage and nothing else mattered. I had no future, the past was gone and I just had that moment and that’s such a great feeling.”